Reflection on 2018

… going to my first ever concert! Discovering and meeting V.E. Schwab at Paris’s book fair! Going to Vietnam without my parents !! Graduating from high school with honours !! Getting accepted into my new school as « grand classée supplémentaire » (meaning I didn’t have to go through the writing part of the entrance exam because my grades were high enough)!! It was dancing my own creation (as small as it was) with my friends in multiple places including my town’s theatre, a university in Vietnam, my dance school, an art gallery, and a gymnasium for my high school dance exam!! And it was going to Bulgaria for three weeks!!

I participated to a remake of West Side Story, twice, and visited the Opéra Garnier, twice too!

I went to my integration weekend and got (slightly) drunk for the first time. I made incredible new friends. Finally, I was able to expose my own photographs in the previously mentioned art gallery for two weeks (!!!)

Sure, I had low moments. Moments where everything seemed foolish and pointless, where I wondered if by wanting to balance dance and my final year of high school, I would screw up both, and moments where I cried of frustration because of school. But I feel lucky, because I didn’t lose anyone in my family, because I am in a healthy place generally speaking, because I got amazing opportunities, because I can afford my school, and travelling.

And I am forever grateful for that.

2018, you were stressful, maybe the most stressful year I’ve had, but you were also the best one so far.